A lot of homes have a 3-phase electric connection. Each of the phases has some appliances connected to it. That implies power consumption in any moment on each phase is different, so we have an unbalanced or non-symmetric load.
A strongly unbalanced load is not desired because:
- (3-phase) circuit breakers can trip because of the one overloaded phase. Even if the total load if far below the circuit breaker's designed maximum. If this happens with the main connection circuit breaker, the whole house is blacked out.
- It causes higher losses and lowers the energy transmission efficiency.
- The power supplier company can penalize the consumer for it.
Are there any affordable means of balancing the power consumption of 3-phase home connection? Commercial solutions are preferred, but DIY is accepted too.
Reconnecting the appliances is an option to improve the power consumption balance to some extent. But it's nonsense to use a vacuum cleaner only because the washing machine is on. The 3-phase consumption will always be varying, so at least improving the balance would suffice.
A phase-shifting transformer helps this situation in transmission networks but it is a utility grade solution.